Baby Steps
by fembuck
Summary: Sierra hasn’t been sleeping in her bunk. EchoSierra, SierraEcho, femslash


**Title: **Baby Steps

**Author: **Janine

**Fandom:** Dollhouse

**Pairing:** Echo/Sierra

**Rating: **R

**Disclaimer: **I don't own them.

**Summary: **Sierra hasn't been sleeping in her bunk.

---

Echo smiled as Sierra slid down into her bed with her, her smile widening as Sierra's face lit up when the blonde gazed over at her.

Echo reached out her hand to Sierra as the purple glow of her bed lit them both up. Sierra grasped her hand and slid forward until they were resting with their foreheads pressed together and their hands clasped.

The light filtering through the clear plastic cover that lay on top of her bed turned off, and Echo and Sierra found themselves in the dark.

Echo smiled at his development, and though she couldn't see Sierra in the newly dark room, she knew that the other Doll was smiling as well.

Echo leaned forward. She was always the one who started things. She was older and wiser, and was supposed to look after Sierra and take care of her. Echo pressed her lips against Sierra's, her heart jumping in her chest when Sierra released a soft, pleased moan in response.

Echo allowed her hands to wander as they kissed, reveling in the feel of Sierra's body. Sierra was slim, but she was well-muscled, taut, a curious and lovely mix of strength and delicacy. Echo liked to touch her body, to trace her fingers over muscles and curves, to feel Sierra twitch and sigh as her fingers roamed her body.

Echo brought her hands to Sierra's breasts and cupped them, enjoying the gentle weight in her hands. Sierra moaned, and arched into her, and Echo leaned down to press her lips against Sierra's bare shoulder as her hands began to massage the blonde's breasts, her thumbs rubbing anxiously over the stiff points at the tips of Sierra's breasts.

Echo's hands kept slipping on the smooth, silken material of Sierra's nightdress, and so she lifted her hands to the straps of the dress and lowered them, helping Sierra out of her clothes.

Once naked, Sierra's hands moved to Echo, and the blonde helped undress Echo as Echo had done for her.

Sierra's mouth was at her neck, licking and sucking softly when Echo's hand found its way between Sierra's legs. Sierra nipped at Echo's pale skin as the brunette's fingers touched the warm wetness at the apex of her thighs. Echo moaned, and her hips jerked as Sierra's tongue bathed the salty column of her throat.

Sierra sighed as contently as Echo guided her onto her back, and then slipped on top of her. Echo leaned down and pressed her lips against Sierra's, and Sierra spread her legs, opening herself up to Echo's touch as they kissed.

Echo felt Sierra's stomach quiver as the blonde's breath came in quick pants. She moved her fingers inside of Sierra more rapidly, her tongue swirling around Sierra's nipple and then sucking it roughly into her mouth, before repeating the process again.

Echo eyes widened in pleasure, her lips parted and she sucked in a deep breath as she felt Sierra's inner-muscles clench at her fingers. Echo wrapped her free arm around Sierra, holding her tightly as Sierra's body trembled beneath her. A trail of liquid warmth ran over her palm and down her wrist, and Echo shivered at the feel of it, pleased at that thought that she had given Sierra such pleasure.

---

Topher looked up from his monitor's and tried to clamp down at the smile that threatened to show on his face as he watched Claire stride toward him. He wasn't surprised to find that she was still in. She sometimes liked to run scans on the Dolls at night, and he liked to be there to make her smile, make her coffee, hand her stethoscopes or whatever it was that she happened to need.

"Hi," Claire greeted as she strolled over to Topher's desk, relatively at ease in his personal kingdom, which made Topher extremely happy. "Sorry to barge in on you. I was hoping you could check Sierra's bunk for me."

"No problem," Topher announced, sitting up straight in his chair. He linked his fingers together and stretched them before unlacing them and wiggling them a few times before dropping them to his keyboard. "Though, that's not going to help you much," he said, turning to face Claire, his fingers hovering dramatically over the keys.

"What do you mean?"

"She's not in her bunk," Topher declared, moving his hands away from the keyboard and turning to face Claire fully. "I already checked."

"Not in her … where is she then?" Claire asked, her eyes narrowing at his epicurean attitude towards the whole affair.

"She's in Echo's," Topher declared, smiling briefly before shifting around to face the keyboard once more, his fingers moving rapidly across the plastic until the stats for Echo's bunk were on the large monitor in front of him.

"Weight for two, heat for two, two times the amount of oxygen is being consumed, two heart beats, two brain wave patterns, and two very interesting biochemical readouts," Topher declared, throwing his hands up into the air victoriously before turning to look at Claire whose eyes were focused on the monitor, studying all of the information on the display.

"How long as this been going on?" Claire asked with an edge to her voice.

"It's been just over two weeks since they were first started staring a bunk," Topher responded, angling his head back to the screen. "This," he said waving his hand at the very interesting biochemical readouts he had mentioned earlier, "has only been going on for four days. They took baby steps," he cooed like a proud Papa.

"Why hasn't any of this information been sent to me?" Claire asked, looking at him wide-eyed, surprised by how long she had been kept in the dark.

"Orders," Topher said in a sing-song voice, "from on high," he continued, looking up at the ceiling as if he expected to find a giant version of Adelle Dewitt looking down on them from above.

"I'm their physician!" Claire declared angrily, knowing that she was taking her frustration out on the wrong person, but also that Topher wouldn't hold that against her.

"We know they're both clean," Topher said mildly. "You checked them out yourself. There's not an STD amongst the lot of them," he said waving his hand at the large window that took up one off the walls of his office. "And, with both of them being double-X chromosomes there's no threat of an 'accidental miracle' making this a 'very special fiscal reporting period'," Topher went on, making quotation marks with his fingers at the side of his head.

Claire's eyes narrowed at Topher, and she leaned back away from him and the monitor.

"Not everything is about venereal diseases," she muttered darkly, staring out of the window, into the darkened 'dollhouse'. "I don't know why Dewitt was keeping this from me, but I know now. I want all of records from both of their bunks for the last month."

She was going to have to check the logs for _all_ of the Dolls bunks. If Sierra and Echo had been sleeping together for in some form or another for weeks, some of the other Dolls were bound to have picked up on the change of routine and might have tried it for themselves. The Dolls were like kids that way. If any male/female dolls paired up pregnancy might be an issue, even though that wasn't a concern in regards to Echo and Sierra.

"Aye, aye," Topher said, saluting quickly before he turned back to his computer. Dewitt was sufficiently alarmed about the length of time the two Dolls had been carrying on for, and she'd given Topher permission to release the information to Dr. Saunders. Topher had tried to reassure the Director that there was no cause for concern and that the wiping process was working just as well as ever. There was nothing wrong with the treatments, it was just impossible to keep them from forming shallow attachments to those around them in between missions, at the end of which they were always shiny, empty chalkboards ready and eager to be written on once more.

"You won't get in trouble?" Claire asked.

"If I was someone who worried about getting in trouble, I wouldn't work here," Topher murmured, before smiling to show that he was joking … mostly. "It'll be fine. She won't even know. They didn't hire me for my good-looks … though those are quite remarkable as well," he continued, cocking his head coquettishly before beginning to type.

He could have told Claire that he'd already been given permission to disclose the information to her – which was the only reason she was getting the real-time information from the bunks in her lab – but pretending that he could get in trouble made him look so much better, so much more attractive, so much more … dateable.

"Thanks," Claire responded, smiling at him briefly before looking back out of the window, her brows drawing together in consternation as she did.

"No problem, Doc," Topher called out as Claire made her way towards the door. "No problem at all," he murmured under his breath, his eyes on Claire as she sashayed away from him.

---

Echo collapsed against her mattress, her eyelids fluttering as her stomach rose and fell rapidly, aftershocks making her body twitch.

Sierra kissed her shoulder, and Echo could feel the blonde's smile against her skin.

"I'm glad you're here," Echo said softly as Sierra snuggled against her side.

"Me too," Sierra said, and Echo leaned forward and kissed her. "Were you sad before I was here?" Sierra asked curiously, dragging her thumb over the soft flesh that covered Echo's shapely hip as she spoke.

"I don't remember being sad," Echo said thoughtfully, "But I know I'm happier now."

"I'm happier now too," Sierra declared, and Echo hugged her tightly. She didn't really know how much happier she was, since she didn't really remember much of anything before she and Echo met. But she did know that she had to be happier than she was before she knew Echo. Echo was wonderful, so she must have been happier.

"We should sleep now," Echo said quietly, liking the feel of Sierra against her body as the blonde settled down against her again. "You have tests in the morning."

"Tests in the morning," Sierra repeated yawning. She hoped that she remembered. She was having a terrible time remembering things. Echo said that it would get better. That she used to have a tough time remembering too, but that it got better over time.

"Goodnight Sierra," Echo said, closing her eyes, already half asleep the moment the last word was out of her mouth.

"Goodnight, love," Sierra murmured in response, too tired to note the anomaly in her speech or wonder about its origin.

---

Claire looked away from the report she was reading, and turned her head towards the screen where the bio-stats from Echo's bunk were being feed. She looked between the two monitors again, and again, and again, and then took off her glasses and leaned back in her chair.

_Interesting_, Claire thought as she laced her hands behind her head, v_ery interesting_.

Claire sat up and turned off the monitor, before rising to her feet.

It really was fascinating, and could be very useful information. It was just too bad Dewitt was going to hate it.

The End


End file.
